The truth about a complex built for veterans and the middle class and how it has evolved through the years to become one of the more interesting and controversial of New York stories.

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Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Dividing Up Apartments To Get More Rooms

Certain Stuy Town apartments have been "divided" to give rooms an extra
"room." We have talked about this, but now a "pilot" program is being
introduced into Peter Cooper Village.

New Reconfiguration of STPCV Apartments

StuyTown Property Services recently informed the Board of Directors of
the Stuyvesant Town–Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association that they
are embarking on an “experiment” to reconfigure vacant apartments.
Although construction has already begun, StuyTown Property Services has
not yet notified the community.

The new program will convert 40 vacant Peter Cooper Village units by
turning the kitchen of a one-bedroom unit into a bedroom and moving the
kitchen into the living room; combining adjacent one- and two-bedroom
units to form a three-bedroom unit; and reconfiguring adjacent one- and
two-bedroom units to create a three-bedroom unit and a studio. The new
program will continue to divide Stuyvesant Town living rooms of 75
vacant apartments to provide an additional bedroom at the expense of
living and dining space.

The Board of Directors of the Stuyvesant Town–Peter Cooper Village
Tenants Association opposes the reconfiguration of the Stuyvesant Town
apartments, which reduces living rooms to foyers in order to increase
sleeping spaces. The arrangement, which degrades the time-tested,
well-designed layout, will likely result in an increase in the existing
transient rent-a-room lifestyle. This is the antithesis of the original
concept of our community. This reconfiguration will most certainly
exacerbate the dormitory and churn effects which tenants have been
objecting to since subdivision of apartments began. It will add further
pressure to our aging infrastructure. It will continue to destabilize
our once-cohesive community.

However, we consider that, with the exception of the studio apartments,
the reconfigured Peter Cooper Village units may attract long-term
residents, the stated goal of both management and the Tenants
Association.

The Term Sheet executed by the City and Blackstone when the latter purchased the property states in part:

"The agreement protects both the current tenants of Stuyvesant Town and
Peter Cooper Village, as well as the Property’s legacy as a home for
moderate- and middle-income New Yorkers for the generation to come. The
Purchaser and the City are committed to the good stewardship of this
unique community, and its long-term viability.

"In addition, the Purchaser intends to maintain the unique
characteristics of the Property . . . by creating an environment that is
conducive to residents establishing a long-term connection to the
community."

The Tenants Association believes the terms and the spirit of the
purchase should preserve the functionality of the original Stuyvesant
Town living spaces in order to maintain, not violate, a viable and
gratifying living experience in an unusual urban setting.

* * *

Right now, I do not have plans of these or Stuy Town rooms, but it
appears that Management is creating more space by actually giving less
space. More to come.

54 comments:

The old living rooms are the new bedrooms. The old foyers are now the new living rooms. Which are about to become kitchens, too. And the kitchen becomes a bedroom. Can you still pee in the bathroom? Just don't get any on the Murphy bed.

Also, the kitchens are pretty small to begin with. You might be able to fit a twin bed and a dresser at most. Pretty fuckin' claustrophobic. Thanks to Big RE and the State Republicans, the next generation of New Yorkers will be packed in like those Undocumenteds in Queens with 30 in a one family house.

Why is this surprising? The only surprise is what took these greedy, bloodsucking ghouls so long.If they could get away with it, they would pack 15 students into each apartment, have a totally transient population, and suck every last nickel out of the tenants.Do I hear a whole new slew of MCI's on the horizon? You heard it here first.Blackstone has a rep on Wall Street as being vicious, take no prisoners, bottom line is the only thing that matters.They will attempt to squeeze every last penny from the property.Screw the tenants.They are so vile that we will wish for the halcyon days of Tishman-Speyer.Horrible, disgusting, vile!

I find it hard to believe that the TA (at least Steinberg and Marsh), Garodnick and DeBlasio knew all about this at the time of the sale. Corrupt is too nice a word to describe this barrel of slime.

Blackstone certainly does have a terrible reputation on Wall Street and Main Street. Schwartzman is pure evil and would sell his nearest and dearest if he got offered the right price. I'd love to see them all get tripped-up and land in jail.

How are there people on the TA Facebook page that still think that Slimy Dan has the community's best interests in mind? To those people, I have an easy Google search for you - DAN GARODNICK REBNY. Then click on images and a few of the links.

I hope the person who gets voted into his council position is the complete opposite of Real Estate Dan.

STR- maybe it's time post another thread showing Dan's real estate ties and the ways he has betrayed his constituents? A few people need a history lesson...

Well there you have it. Starret and Stuyvesant Town are or were one in the same. Trump is nothing more than an extreme version of the deomocrats and republicans. They are all the same in that they take from the Public to enrich themselves and their friends. Stopping Trump just may inadvertently stop a lot of the past 30 years of corruption by democrats and republicans too.

I would actually be onboard with the TA if they were to initiate a lawsuit against Blackstone to update the room count on this property for MCI purposes. They have had so many opportunities to do this already, so I'm not holding my breath.

holy fucking shit, more rooms ? more rooms? and one bathroom - how totally gross. This is all legal since they are all in bed with DHcr and DOH. Peace out. We're moving and we're MR, uncomfortable here and not safe.

If the TA would bring a lawsuit against Blackstone for this atrocity, I would gladly pay the $50 fee and make a generous donation. And sign their pledge. Unfortunately, I think that, as usual, this is just a show boat stance on the TA's part because they know that most tenants despise them and believe them to be in bed with management. I suspect that they have known about this for a long time and have carefully timed their "outrage." I very much hope I am wrong.

Can someone make sense of this? I will note that "This was the strongest criticism that the council member has leveled against the proposed floor price, joining the laments of the Real Estate Board of New York and other public officials."

Check out the Stuy Town management email. What a joke. I like how Rick doesn't tie his name into this because he knows it's a bunch of crap, and he doesn't want to deal with the backlash that's going to come.

This whole thing is so backwards.... how the hell do they expect us to believe they are focusing on anyone but students? What family is going to move into an apartment with LESS LIVING ROOM SPACE??? Absolutely none.

This is nothing more than a way to squeeze more NYU students into an apartment.

hanks to Big RE and the State Republicans, the next generation of New Yorkers will be packed in like those Undocumenteds in Queens with 30 in a one family house.

State Republicans??? Last I checked Dirty Dan and the entire city council except 1 or 2 from Staten Island are ALL DEMOCRATS. I call bull on your statement. Nice attempt to deflect the blame from where it belongs. This is precisely why NY will never get better. Liberals continuing to blame Republicans when the entire blame should be on those Democrats they keep re-electing election after election. Sad!

State Republicans??? Last I checked Dirty Dan and the entire city council except 1 or 2 from Staten Island are ALL DEMOCRATS. I call bull on your statement. Nice attempt to deflect the blame from where it belongs.

I call bull on your bull, and raise you one. It was Pataki and Bruno who engineered vacancy decontrol on the final day of the 1997 legislative session. If not for that, PCVST would be very much the same today as it was then. And every time rent laws are up for renewal, the Senate Reps fight tooth and nail to weaken them. For sure, there are plenty of Dems taking cash from Big RE and talking up tenant rights while looking the other way while those rights are being trampled on (that's you Gov, if you're reading this). But the Reps make no bones about it, they outright promise to pull the rug out from under us.

By the way, I'm pretty sure these conversions are already under way in Stuy Town.

This weekend, walking along the Ave C loop, I noticed an apartment with FOUR new in-wall A/C units under the windows. I thought "bedroom, bedroom, living room, and....kitchen? Why an A/C in the kitchen?"

Let's leave the trumposphere and get back to reality, the republicans are the death of RS and regard you as a freeloading, welfare recipient for living in an RS apartment. Don't push false moral equivalency here.

Hayduk is fronting. These new configurations are designed for dorm living. Who is he kidding. The prices with 2 bathrooms will be sky high, I bet over 6 grand and most families will not pay that to live in this dump. How can people believe this guy or anything Blackstone says.

Here is a building that just opened in the Bronx near Fordham university. It was built specifically for the student population. It looks exactly like what Blackstone is trying to do here. At least up there they don't sugarcoat things... they say its student housing. Down here you have Rick lying through his teeth saying it's not geared towards students.

Let's leave the trumposphere and get back to reality, the republicans are the death of RS and regard you as a freeloading, welfare recipient for living in an RS apartment. Don't push false moral equivalency here.

Once again, I call BULL. The problems here are NYC grown. Ain't no Republicans doing the damage here. It starts with Garodnick, DeBlasio and the city council. All Democrats. Keep smoking the K2 and re-electing the folks that are causing the problems. Then you can deflect and feel better about yourself even though you're part of the problem with your old thinking.

Does the TA have any leverage with SPS/Rick? If I were TA President Susan Steinberg and I had leverage with Rick, I would demand Rick add high end acoustical soundproofing to every new renovation/remodel - floors, walls, etc ...

You can't hide from the simple plain fact that, as a matter of faith,every GOP member opposes RS and will do everything in their power to end it. And, in their view, if you have an RS lease, you are a freeloading, welfare recipient, anti- American, communist.

Bloomberg was a republican, as was Giuliani and they had no respect for anybody but the wealthy. Bloomberg, in particular, shares a lot of blame for the way the City has become an overcrowded, very dirtier version of Tokyo. People live in broom closets there, but they (the people) do tend to fit better because they are not as physically large as New Yorkers.

"You can't hide from the simple plain fact that, as a matter of faith,every GOP member opposes RS and will do everything in their power to end it. And, in their view, if you have an RS lease, you are a freeloading, welfare recipient, anti- American, communist."

Very true, but unfortunately we have a lot of Dems who are DINOs when it comes to REBNY. They preach fairness and sympathy for the middle-class while, at the same time, pocketing big dollars from developers and landlords to screw the people they are supposed to protect. I have no respect for any of them anymore. I refuse to sign those petitions to get them on the ballot, though if I get asked to sign one for Barry Shapiro, I will do so. I don't know if he has a chance against the corrupt sharks, though.

"or the real Rent Stabilized tenants here in PCVST there is no fear of the GOP removing protections since the sale parameters protect it forever. No one in PCVST can blame the GOP anymore."

This statement is just plain dumb. Or an absolute lie. Every 5-6 years, the NYS RS law sunsets and must be renewed by the NYS legislature and then signed off by the Governor. This NYC sale deal with Blackstone deal has nothing to do with NYS RS law until the J-51 tax abatements expire on 6/15/2020. Then basically ALL renovated apartments lose their NYS RS protections. Non renovated apartments will keep their NYS RS status IF the NYS RS law is renewed as per my previous text. Again, you are either lying though your teeth or totally misinformed and clueless how “real” NYS RS law and regs work and how this so called "affordable” (a piss poor joke that will run out now in less than 20 years) housing deal with Blackstone and NYC was supposed to work. BTW, Danny Boy's latest newsletter lists this crap deal as him “saving” affordable housing for the middle class. How can a deal with a life span of only 20 years ”save" affordable housing in NYC?

Anybody see the "Living" email blast from Management today? It shows a photograph of a master bedroom with twin beds, as was the convention in the 40s and 50s. They just couldn't resist that pointing out that this is why master bedrooms are "truly oversized." Is there a message in that, or am I just being suspicious of their motives?

5000 apartments in PCVST are RS forever, regardless of what happens in Albany."

BS. The 5000 you speak are of the NYC so called "affordable" deal with NYC and Blackstone (not NYS) which ends now in less than 20 years plus old school RS (not renovated) apartments. As per 6/15/2020, ALL renovated apartments lose their NYS RS protections including the NYC/Blackstone “affordable” deal (not NYS) renovated apartments). NYS RS apartments which. again, can lose their NYS RS protections as per Albany’s whims. As I posted before, NYS RS law sunsets every 5-6 years. You have no idea how NYS RS law works. Stop posting lies.

Until There Is Silence No More

The Tenants Association and our councilman Dan Garodnick have mysteriously remained silent about a purported incident that occurred on July 12: the mugging by a group of individuals of someone right by Peter Cooper Village, along 20th Street.

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"We'll be introducing a new process to identify registered dogs thus enabling Public Safety Officers to clearly approach offending dog owners. The registration will hang from the leash handle; clearly identifying the dog as registered.

"If the dog is not registered by May 1; a summons will be issued at the point of contact. If we learn the dog owner is not a resident, they will be escorted off the property."

Rick Hayduk, CEO and General Manager of PCVST. Letter to Barry Shapiro, February 2016.

THINKING of Renting in PCVST?

Read Yelp reviews to find out what it's like living here. Please note: All apartments are currently "rent-stabilized" but that doesn't prevent apartments from going up to 4K to 6K a month and even higher. How does this happen? Ask our politicians! Fact: Now less than half of the complex's apartments have the old rents and it's getting worse year by year--or better if you are the Real Estate Board of New York!

The Other Yelp Reviews

Yelp can be tricky and bounce reviews for a variety of reasons, like being a member and posting just one review. Very often, however, these reviews hold important truths about what's being reviewed. READ THESE TOO.

BICYCLES, MOPEDS, SCOOTERS, ETC.

Of course, "private property" but "public access" - whatever that means! And if a part of it is public access, do the rules of the city apply to our roads and sidewalks? Or does anything give because this complex is "private property"? Who comes here in case of a fire in one of our buildings? The Stuy Town Fire Brigade?

Hint: Look both ways if you are in the complex. Look on the ground, too!

61.03 Control of dogs and other animals to prevent nuisance. (a) A person who owns, possesses or controls a dog, cat or other animal shall not permit the animal to commit a nuisance on a sidewalk of any public place, on a floor, wall, stairway, sidewalk, lawn, garden or roof of any public or private premises used in common by the public, or on a fence, wall [or], stairway or entranceway of a building abutting on a public place

Banned & Oversize Dog Breeds in Stuy Town

Looks like there is some difficulty in enforcing the ban on certain dog breeds allowed inside Stuy Town/Peter Cooper Village. Somehow pitbulls and pitbull mixes have been registered in STPCV and are allowed to be freely walked about the grounds! Registered dogs in the complex are max 50 pounds. Total, if there is more than one! More than two, it's illegal. It's going to get worse, and, face it, Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village will never be like it once was.

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Read it and Weep

Current Value of ST/PCV

Was 5.4 Billion Dollars when Tishman Speyer bought the place.Became 1.7 Billion Dollars when Tishman Speyer left, with their tail between their legs. Of course, tenants now have to make up the loss.

Ex-landlord

Rob Speyer

1947 Stuy Town Plaque Honoring Met Life Chairman F.H. Ecker (Removed in 2002 and never seen again)

"... who with the vision of experience and the energy of youth conceived and brought into being this project, and others like it, that families of moderate means might live in health, comfort and dignity in park-like communities and that a pattern might be set of private enterprise productively devoted to public service."

I am writing on behalf of everyone at Tishman Speyer to express how honored we are to become part of your outstanding community. We are a business with deep roots in New York, a true love of our city and a great respect for the neighborhoods that make it special. We are committed to maintaining the unique character and environment that have made Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town such a wonderful place to live for so long. We look forward to providing you an extraordinary level of service and attentiveness that will be the source of pride and satisfaction for the entire community.

Neighborhood Recommendations

New to Stuy Town/Peter Cooper Village? Here are some basic recommendations.

Best supermarket: Associated on 14th St. between 1st Ave. and Ave A. The cheapest prices, fantastic weekly sales, very affordable lunches; solid, responsive management, but earthy. Some of the young female cashiers have attitude to spare, though. May be too far for Peter Cooper residents.

Best gym: Don't waste your money on the Oval Fitness Gym. Instead go to the earthy but real Asser Levy Recreational Center, right above 23rd St on Asser Levy Place (near the FDR Drive). $75 for a year's membership; seniors are almost free. Contains seasonal indoor and outdoor swimming pools, ping-pong table, two pool tables. Called by some rich people who wouldn't get caught going there "the prison gym," and you know why.

A Stuy Town favorite is Lenz's on 20 St. between the 20 St. Loop. The way New York used to be. Be careful of unwanted "pepper" in your food, however. Lenz's got a B grade rating and was temporarily closed down due to an order from the Health Department. Bruno's on First Avenue is more upscale, with a greater selection of food items (higher-priced, too), but was closed down temporarily by the Health Department. Stuy Town's own cafe was closed, too! And not because of all the dogs that hover and piss outside.

Gracefully has two locations, but we prefer for its size the one on 1st Ave. Prices are high and reflect the new tenants that are currently renting Stuy Town and Peter Cooper apartments. ("Do you have a credit card?") We like Gracefully's lunch specials, which are somewhat affordable.

I priced the CVS on 1st Ave near 14st. The non-aerosol hairspray was 20 cents above CVS' own website price, and one of the highest in NY. (Yes, I have hair.) You can save at least a dollar or more buying at another place. So beware. Look around for a better deal on all your items.

I love warm Quaker Oats in the morning. Gristedes is not the place to get it, nor is Associated, though their price is less. Look around!

Macular Degeneration Support Group

If you are currently diagnosed with Macular Degeneration, the New York Eye & Ear Infirmary is offering a support group for you. Conveniently located next to the Peter Cooper Village Stuyvesant Town apartment complex, our group offers the opportunity to share stories with other members, listen to expert guest speakers, and learn coping strategies to reduce stress. Our group runs on the first Wednesday of every month and we would enjoy seeing you there.
Please contact Baptiste Nicolas, Social Work Assistant at 212-979-4105 for further information and to see if this group is right for you!